Curry agrees to start up Georgia State program

Bill Curry has been the head coach at Georgia Tech, Alabama and Kentucky. He was a Pro-Bowler and won a championship in the NFL. Now it's on to a school without a team.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported on Wednesday that the current ESPN analyst has agreed to be the first football coach at Georgia State. The Atlanta school will begin play in 2010 in the division formerly known as I-AA and will play its home games in the Georgia Dome.

Curry will reportedly be introduced at a Thursday afternoon news conference and then jump right into assembling a staff. The hiring was confirmed to The Associated Press by a person with knowledge of the process who did not want to be identified.

The newspaper reports that Georgia State will have spring practice in 2009.

Curry will join former Atlanta Falcons coach Dan Reeves as patriarchs of the program. Reeves has served as a consultant and helped raise $1.2 million in pledged funds for the program.

"I think Bill will do a super job. He's got a great reputation. You couldn't ask for anyone better to start Georgia State's program. He's got college experience, he has recruited and he lieves in Atlanta. I think that's fantastic."

Reeves said he was asked if he'd be interested in the job.

"They talked to me but I just felt they needed to get somebody with college experience and who has recruited and is excited about the job," Reeves said.

Curry, 65, played college football at Georgia Tech and played in the NFL with Green Bay, Baltimore, Houston and Los Angeles. He was ACC coach of the year with Georgia Tech in 1985 and was national coach of the year with Alabama in 1989. He went 26-52 with Kentucky from 1990-96 and started with ESPN the following season.

Curry tried to return to Atlanta two years ago. He was the runner-up when Georgia Tech hired Dan Radakovich as athletic director on Feb. 22, 2006.